Three nighttime Honolulu police officers, three solo bike officers and three parking enforcement officers racked up 80 traffic and parking tickets by midmorning Tuesday under a new mobile automated citation program designed to be more accurate and less time consuming.

It typically takes an officer using a pen seven to 10 minutes to write a ticket. New “e-citation” automation reduces the time to less than three minutes — possibly even under 60 seconds with practice using the technology, said Capt. Ben Moszkowicz, executive officer of the Honolulu Police Department’s traffic division.

Officers can save time, eliminate bad handwriting and reduce errors by using either an iPhone, iPad or iPad mini to scan driver’s license and vehicle registration information directly into the HPD citation system and then to the city prosecutor’s office and state Judiciary. The location also will be automatically added to citations using GPS.

No one in the court system will have to struggle to interpret an officer’s sloppy handwriting, Moszkowicz said, and there should be fewer mistakes such as writing down driver’s license information incorrectly. Officers also will no longer need to write out each violation, and can quickly pick from a menu of about 20 common offenses.

In place of the usual paper citation, typically about the size of a legal envelope, the information is transmitted to a wireless, portable printer that spits out a longer, narrower 4-inch-by-2-foot citation.

Although the format is different, the language is identical.

The good news for drivers is that they will spend less time on the side of the road getting cited.

The bad news is that officers — at least the nine who have the new systems and printers in their hands since Monday night — have more time to spot violations and issue more citations.

“I’ve never seen officers more excited to go issue citations,” Moszkowicz said.

After using an iPad and printer to issue e-citations Tuesday morning, solo bike officer Kaimana Pine said, “My interaction with the motorists is probably half now. It’s pretty quick.”

The technology, from Arizona-based Thin Blue Line Reporting, is also in limited use by Maui police.

HPD’s pilot project is funded through a grant of more than $100,000 from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that covers all costs, including the specialized water-resistant paper for printing the tickets.

In about three months the program is expected to expand to 70 officers from Kalihi to Hawaii Kai for the rest of the year, Moszkowicz said.

The pilot for e-citations follows the rollout of body cameras for about 30 uniformed patrol officers downtown and in Chinatown two weeks ago. Within two years HPD hopes to issue 1,200 body cams across Oahu to all uniformed patrol officers who have regular contact with the public.

For now, none of the initial officers wearing body cams also will be issuing electronic citations, Moszkowicz said.

“We wanted to keep it simple,” Moszkowicz said. “When we go to Phase II in a few months and we go up to 70 officers … then some of the officers who are using e-citations will also be body cam users. We hope by that time they become more fluent in using body cams and so it’s not a double learning curve all at once.”